


King of the Pancake

by dreamfall



Category: Daredevil (TV), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-31
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-05-16 15:21:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14813901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamfall/pseuds/dreamfall
Summary: This is an alternate PoV of a scene from hobbywriting's wonderful fic Fear (see link in inspired by) posted with permission. The circumstances are unlikely to make sense if you haven't read that story, but in short, Matt Murdock (aka Daredevil) was taken in by the Avengers after he was attacked and brutalized. He's having a rough time of it and is not talking except to Foggy, and sort of freaked out when Bucky came into a room angry about an unrelated circumstance earlier, leaving Bucky believing that Matt was afraid of him. I think that's enough context not to be completely lost if you choose to dive in despite not having the original.





	King of the Pancake

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Fear](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5744227) by [hobbywriting](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hobbywriting/pseuds/hobbywriting). 



> No warnings because this particular scene is fluff--the same cannot be said for the parent fic as a whole.

Bucky’s barely able to keep from _fighting_ Steve when he insists on going for his run, on leaving him alone with this poor kid who’s fucking _terrified_ of him, who broke out of his haze and misery to protect his friend from _Bucky_ because he’s a fucking _monster_ —but Steve leaves anyway, gives him a hug, tells him it’ll be fine and just fucking _leaves_ , leaves Bucky sweating and shaking on the couch praying to anything listening that the poor kid just _stays asleep_ till Steve comes back or till someone else comes down or _something._  
  
Just as if he didn’t _know_ a prayer from him would make the opposite happen.  
  
The kid shifts, stirs, moves, the blanket falls off leaving him all flushed and big-eyed, reaching for his friend. And he’ll _know_ Bucky’s there, so better to—better to remind him first, right?  
  
“Hey,” he says as neutrally as he can. “Um. Steve’s gone for his run. He should be back any minute now.”  
  
The kid tilts his head but doesn’t otherwise respond. At least he doesn’t jump or fall off the couch or flail or something. He sits back, runs a hand through his hair, but he’s frowning and every bit of his attention is on his buddy.  Until he beckons Bucky over.  
  
He freezes. “You want me to come over to you?” he offers the interpretation which _can’t_ be right, but the gesture had been clear, and—the kid nods, waves again, impatiently.  
  
Reluctantly, he obeys, siding around the coffee table and then sitting on the corner of it near the end of the couch. “What is it?”  
  
The kid points at his arm—his flesh arm—then touches his palm to his friend’s forehead.  
  
His friend stirs, then sits up against the pillow. “What? Hey, Matty, you’re up,” he says, his voice thick with sleep.  
  
Bucky clears his throat nervously. “I think he wants me to touch your face.”  
  
“What?” Which _yeah,_ his point exatly.  
  
“Your forehead,” he elaborates. “I think he wants me to touch your forehead.  
  
Foggy frowns in dazed confusion, shifting his gaze to Bucky and then back to his friend, offering a confused joke about touching faces the way the kid does, to see them.  
  
The kid rolls his eyes, points at Bucky’s hand, at his buddy’s forehead.  
  
Foggy’s eyes come back to him, and he offers a half-smile and raises on shoulder a little. “Touch me.” He breaks off, flushes. “Wait, that sounded—“  
  
He’d grin if he weren’t so terrified he was going to do something to fuck this up somehow, but then Foggy starts coughing and doesn’t stop for several seconds, Matt rubbing his back until he finally collapses back into the pillows. “God I feel terrible.”They work smoothly side-by-side, and Bucky laughs when he notices the kid sneaking some extra chocolate chips. “Bit of a chocoholic aren’t you, pal?”  
  
“Only certain kinds,” Foggy calls from the couch, not trying to move this time. Bucky had watched in awe twice before as the kid suddenly spun away from his pan and stalked back to the living room to shove his friend down before Bucky was even aware he was trying to get up, but it looked like he’d learned his lesson now. “He’s a total chocolate snob.”  
  
“Me I’ll eat anything that tastes remotely like chocolate, additives and all,” Bucky offered, flipping his pancake with practiced flair. “But I’ve got to admit Tony has great taste in chocolate. He never orders anything but the best. He bought these great boxes for us to share on Valentine’s Day. He was planning on doing the same on Easter Sunday, yesterday, but he got a little delayed ordering them so they haven’t come yet. When they do we’ll make a night of it.” Then he blinks as the kid flicks his wrist and the pancake in his pan flips out and lands neatly onto his stack of finished ones.  
  
 “Jesus, Matt. If you’re that good at flipping pancakes, why are you sticking to the tame stuff?” he challenges as the kid pauses or a drink of water.  
  
The kid shrugs, nonchalant, pours in some batter, and Bucky flips his own pancake, high and perfect, and grins a silent challenge. As if he can see it, the kid shakes his pan a little and then flicks, the pancake rising, flipping, flipping again, and a third time before landing raw side down, not a single blueberry lost.  
  
Bucky shakes his head, grinning. “It’s on,” he informs him.  
  
At first they compete for how many times they can get their pancake to turn in the air, but eventually he figures out the kid can’t always tell how many rotations a pancake’s getting, so they go to flat timing with Jarvis playing judge, each of them going for more and more height until--  
  
“Aw crap,” Bucky whines as Matt’s pancake slaps into his pan—and Bucky’s remains glued to the ceiling.  
  
“Oh I need to take a picture of this. Bucky Barnes scowling at the horrible ceiling that dares to steal his pancake,” the traitor lawyer laughs from the other room.  
  
The kid’s head tilts to the side a little and he pauses, and Bucky prompts gently,  
“Hey pal, don’t burn that. It’s good pancake,” tapping one finger lightly against the handle of Matt’s pan.  
  
The kid blinks, a funny expression crossing his face that Bucky can’t translate even though he’s mostly an open book. Then he turns off the burner and slides the last pancake onto his stack, just a little darker than the rest but well within the realm of acceptable pancake. Especially among this crowd.  
  
The elevator doors whoosh open and Bucky doesn’t need to look away from the pancake that’s still glued to the ceiling to know it’s Steve and Sam. “You know,” he points out, still holding his pan, stealing a sideways glance at the kid. “Technically this means my pancake was in the air the longest.”  
  
The kid glares at him with the most disapproving expression, shaking his head, as Steve comes over to see what the fuss is about, his gaze following Bucky’s as he returns to his mournful contemplation of his pancake.  
  
Steve chuckles, the punk. “Again Bucky?”  
  
“Shut up Steve,” Bucky growls, glancing down at Matt who’s still glaring like an angry kitten beside him. “I had steep competition.”  
  
Steve’s eyes get soft and he smiles at the kid, his voice going soft the way that makes it clear Bucky’s not the only one whose head won’t accept the knowledge that Matt’s an adult. “Matt, you and Bucky had a pancake flipping competition?”  
  
Matt nods.  
  
“Matt won the pancake flipping contest!” Foggy shouts from the couch.  
  
Matt points toward Foggy and then glares at Bucky, nodding firmly.  
  
He sighed dramatically, and it takes a ridiculous amount of effort not to let his lips twitch at that glare. “All right pal. You win this round.”  
  
The kid smiles, and Bucky’s heart fucking _stops_ at the sweet shock of it. It was the first time he’d seen anything less grim than determination on his face and it made him look ... young and healthy and _okay_ in a way he was suddenly _desperate_ to have be _true_.  
  
The smile fades into a slight frown all too quickly, and Sam says softly, “It’s good to see you smile, Matt.”  
  
The kid _blushes_ , and, _seriously_ , Tony isn’t fucking wrong about his strays. Steve drops onto one of the stools at the breakfast bar and asks, “Why is Foggy still on the couch?”  
  
“He’s got a slight fever,” Bucky explains. “Matt’s keeping him on couch rest.”  
  
And then suddenly the kid reaches out to Bucky, pushing his hand to the right—and the fucking pancake falls off the ceiling and into the pan, dead center, raw side down.  
  
No fucking shit.  
  
He stares from it to him in absolute awe—and then the kid’s face sorta crumples with uncertainty and guilt and he backs away two graceful steps, dropping his chin, and _why_ does Bucky keep fucking this _up_?  
  
Steve makes an abortive motion, mouth opening, but Sam holds up a hand, stopping him and says, calm and easy, “Bucky has the most awestruck expression on his face right now.”  
  
The kid pauses, raising his face to look toward Sam, frowning doubtfully.  
  
“Matt?” Foggy’s voice comes from the living room, and Bucky has to grin at the disapproving look Matt sends him as he somehow knows he’s not lying flat on it but kneeling up to watch the action. “Did you not recognise that emotion?”  
  
Matt flushes again and shakes his head, embarrassed.  
  
“Well, Murdock.” Bucky shakes his own head in amazement as he sets his pan with the fucking miracle pancake back down and moves to start grabbing plates to set the table. “This is me officially awestruck. You are hereby crowned king of the pancake.”

**Author's Note:**

> Check out Fear if you haven't read it and the warnings don't scare you away. It's wonderful--totally Matt's PoV, which is really, really well done, especially for so challenging a task. It's gotta be hard to not accidentally add in visual touches! But I wanted Bucky's side--and have been granted permission to do more, so this might expand at some point! This particular scene is in Chapter 14.


End file.
